Auto-recharge of credits keeps getting turned back on / is automatically selected and turned on every time you buy credits

Happened to me. I have to hope the disputes go through.

This happened to me after I authorised a manual payment of 1000 credits but I didn't notice for 2 days and it had taken 36 further automatic payments and a racked up a bill of over £1,600! Absolutely gutted.

This actually happened to me as well, and I'm pretty mindful of this. I didn't receive a single email/notification the whole time.

Honestly had developed a mental model of Codex being a much better cost-per-performance harness but I guess it was just secretly charging instead.

This is still happening. And also reverting model selection to Sol after manually selecting to a prefered model.

Codex UI incorrectly suggests that purchasing credits extends weekly usage limit

Summary

The Codex interface led me to believe that purchasing credits would allow me to continue using Codex immediately after reaching my weekly usage limit.

I followed the purchase flow exactly as presented by the UI, completed the payment successfully, but I still cannot use Codex.

This appears to be either:

• a UI/UX issue that misleads users about how credits work, or
• a billing issue where purchased credits are not applied.

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Environment

• Platform: ChatGPT Web and Desktop App
• Plan: ChatGPT Plus
• Date: July 17, 2026

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Steps to Reproduce

1. Reach the weekly Codex usage limit.
2. Codex displays the following message:

"You've reached your Codex and Work usage limit."

1. Click Add credits.
2. The purchase dialog states that buying credits allows you to continue using Codex after your balance runs out.
3. Purchase 500 credits.
4. Payment completes successfully.
5. Return to Codex.

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Expected Behavior

After purchasing credits:

• Credits should be added to the account.
• Codex should continue working using the purchased credits after the included weekly quota has been exhausted.

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Actual Behavior

Codex remains blocked.

The Usage Analytics page shows:

• Weekly usage remaining: 0%
• Credits remaining: 0

The application continues asking me to wait until the weekly reset or upgrade to Pro.

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Evidence

Payment receipt confirms:

• Purchase date: July 17, 2026
• Amount: R$110.00
• Credits purchased: 500
• Payment status: Paid

Support ticket has already been opened with OpenAI.

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Why this is a UX problem

The issue is not only that the credits were unavailable.

The interface explicitly guided me through a purchase flow that strongly implied purchasing credits would allow continued use of Codex after reaching the weekly limit.

A reasonable interpretation of the UI is:

"You reached your limit → Buy credits → Continue using Codex."

Instead, after payment:

• Weekly limit remained exhausted.
• Credit balance remained zero.
• Codex stayed unavailable.

This creates a confusing and misleading user experience.

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Suggested Improvements

If credits are not intended to bypass the weekly usage limit, the purchase flow should clearly state this before payment.

For example:

Purchasing credits does not extend your weekly usage allowance. Credits are only used after your account is eligible to consume them.

or

Credits cannot be used while your weekly plan limit is exhausted. Upgrading to Pro is required for additional usage.

If this is instead a billing issue, then the purchased credits should be correctly applied to the user's account.

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Impact: High (users may purchase credits expecting immediate access to Codex based on the current interface behavior).

The Codex interface led me to believe that purchasing credits would allow me to continue using Codex immediately after reaching my weekly usage limit. I followed the purchase flow exactly as presented by the UI, completed the payment successfully, but I still cannot use Codex.

And again, just like in the other issue, this is not related to the issue discussed here. Also it's just an app bug. You get the credits and it is supposed to continue working after buying. If that's not the case, it's a bug and you should report it in a NEW issue.

Back to the original issue, this just happened to us also - we've been left with a 1,500 euro bill. Auto-recharge was on when it was explicitly switched off. Codex (via vscode) showed very confusing information about what was going on, it just blew past the subscription limits, and continued with credits while also offering to buy more credits but apparently auto-recharging in the background anyway. There was no indication of what was going on, and the sessions were unattended for quite a large part of the issue.

Not ok at all.

(We've added a very low limit now, turned it off again - which shouldn't be required - but is the only obvious fix)

@etraut-openai maybe you guys should take a look at that soon, it is kind of a serious issue. Too serious for letting the issue vanish in the flood of 5K other issues.

This happened to me, I got charged almost $1000 USD!

this has happened to be as well on two seperate occasions. I turned it off twice and somehow it switched back on. This is clearly being done on purpose.

This happened to me after I authorised a manual payment of 1000 credits but I didn't notice for 2 days and it had taken 36 further automatic payments and a racked up a bill of over £1,600! Absolutely gutted.

Here is OpenAI support's inadequate response to my ticket:

Case Number: 114****5
Hi Graham,

Thank you for reaching out to OpenAI Support.

We understand how concerning it must have been to discover a much higher API spend than you expected, especially when you only intended to make two manual credit top-ups for your personal hobby project. We appreciate you taking the time to explain that you believe auto-recharge was enabled without your knowledge, that you've since disabled it, paused your project, and implemented spending limits to help prevent this from happening again.

After carefully reviewing your account, we can confirm that the purchased API credits have already been used for Codex usage. Because those purchased credits have already been consumed, we're unable to offer a refund for these charges, including as a one-time goodwill exception.

For more information about our Service Credit Terms, you may visit: Service credit terms
If you have any additional information or observations that you believe may assist our review, please reply to this email, and we'll ensure they're added to your case.

Warm regards,
Avegle
OpenAI Support

You pieces of shit

Happened to me as well,so many transactions fired automatically on 26/07/2026,25/06/2026,24/07/2026
total 19 transactions.

How do I request a refund?

This happened to me too buying credits web, Windows 10, Chrome browser. No human to reach at OpenAI.

Happened to me, 132 transactions in 24 hours with no alerts. Opened a response via the chatbot, but no human contact yet.

I may have experienced a related billing incident.

Between July 27 and July 30, 2026, my bank provided a record of 79 total international transactions associated with the period under review, totaling USD 1,503.13.

I recognize only two limited one-time Codex credit purchases. I dispute the remaining transactions subject to reconciliation with OpenAI’s internal billing records.

I do not recall knowingly enabling an Auto top-up configuration capable of generating this volume of recurring charges. My expectation was that Codex would stop when the manually purchased credits were exhausted.

I have opened a verified billing case with OpenAI and requested preservation and review of the checkout, Auto top-up configuration, transaction and usage logs.

I cannot yet confirm the root cause. However, I am adding this as a factual data point and asking the team to investigate whether a one-time credit purchase can enable or re-enable Auto top-up without clear, separate and explicit consent.

Please preserve relevant logs and provide an update on whether this issue is being investigated or mitigated.

It happened AGAIN! After the support people told us we wouldnt get anything back from the last time, we ABSOLUTELY 100% confirmed the switch was off.

I know what's happening now, if you leave it unattended and it runs out of credit, it simply switches on the auto-recharge and bills you by the API. It should stop, but it doesn't. So you run past your subscription and then get billed for token usage.

100% confirmed. I can't see why this doesn't require legal action, I absolutely did not agree to the purchase, it's unsafe to use this now - will have to baby sit long running queries.

Surely not the sort of publicity OpenAI needs @etraut-openai

Thank you for sharing your findings. My experience appears to be very similar.

I was affected by 79 automatic credit charges between July 27 and July 30, 2026, totaling approximately USD 1,500. I recognize only my initial intentional credit purchase. The subsequent transactions were not expected or intentionally authorized.

My case is currently being investigated by OpenAI Support (Case #12456867), and my bank has opened a formal dispute while they review the transactions.

Your observation about Auto Top-up potentially becoming enabled again after credits are exhausted is particularly interesting because it could explain behavior that several users are independently reporting. I cannot confirm the root cause from my side, but I believe it would be valuable if the engineering team could review:

• Auto Top-up configuration change history.
• Checkout and billing logs.
• Credit purchase events.
• Any automatic state changes related to low or depleted balances.

If multiple reports point to the same pattern, this may indicate a reproducible issue rather than isolated user error.

I appreciate everyone sharing detailed information, as it should help the engineering team investigate the problem more effectively.

Got me for 300 transaction in one week totaling 23k. Cant even get them to reply - keep getting messages a specialist will reach out. Such BS